In February, Governor Patrick Morrisey stood at the State Capitol and called it a historic win. A $4 billion data center campus was coming to the Falling Waters district of Berkeley County, backed entirely by private capital from a Washington, D.C. real estate firm called Penzance Management, with 1,000 construction jobs and 125 permanent positions. By June, Berkeley County's own legal team had sent the state a very different kind of letter. It didn't celebrate the assessed value the project would add to the county's books. It warned that the same value could cost local schools up to $30 million a year.
Both things are true. The gap between the number the state announced and the number the county is now trying to get answered in writing is what anyone comparing homes in Falling Waters against other Eastern Panhandle towns should understand, before getting distracted by the simpler debate over noise and aesthetics that's dominated most of the coverage so far.
What Actually Got Announced
On February 26, Penzance Managing Partner Victor Tolkan described his company's approach plainly at the announcement: find land, entitle it, and partner with the hyperscale tenants who will eventually lease it. He couldn't yet say who that tenant would be. The project, branded a "High Impact Intelligence Center" and the first of its kind certified in West Virginia, will sit on 548 acres in the Falling Waters and Bedington area. At full build-out it's expected to reach 1.9 million square feet and deliver up to 600 megawatts of IT capacity. No construction timeline was released at the announcement, and none has been made public since.
The project qualified for its certification under House Bill 2014, a 2025 law that streamlines permitting for large-scale data centers and, notably for anyone trying to influence the outcome locally, prohibits counties and municipalities from enforcing regulations that would limit a certified project. That detail matters more than it sounds like it should, because it shapes exactly how residents have had to fight back.
The Town Hall in the Rain
On March 20, hundreds of people packed a nearly full auditorium at Spring Mills High School for a town hall on the project. More than 25 people spoke. Christopher Breeze, who said he'd lived in Berkeley County for 46 years and bought his first home in Bedington where the data center is planned, described watching farms and orchards in the area disappear over the decades and argued that eminent domain was meant for projects that benefit the public, not private corporations. Joann Gregory, who has lived above Bedington Falls for 50 years, told commissioners she's one of four households the development will surround, and recalled that the stone house at the Bedington Bridge flooded so badly in 1936 that residents had to leave through a second-story window by boat. A resident named Frank raised the water math directly: an open system pulling 5 million gallons a day versus a flow system using 5 million gallons a year, a 364-fold difference, in the middle of what he described as a four-year drought. A man named Carl from Hedgesville asked whether the county could challenge HB 2014 through Home Rule.
None of that back-and-forth changed anything the county commission could actually regulate. What it did do was set the stage for a much quieter fight that started a few weeks later, on paper, far from any microphone.
The Letter Nobody at the Town Hall Was Reading
Under HB 2014, property tax revenue generated by a certified high-impact data center gets split a specific way: 50 percent goes to a state fund for reducing personal income tax, 30 percent goes to the host county, 10 percent is distributed to all counties on a per capita basis, and the remaining 10 percent splits between grid stabilization and an economic enhancement grant program.
| Share of new tax revenue | Destination |
|---|---|
| 50% | State personal income tax reduction fund |
| 30% | Host county (Berkeley County) |
| 10% | All 55 counties, per capita |
| 5% | Electric Grid Stabilization and Security Fund |
| 5% | Economic Enhancement Grant Program |
That 30 percent sounds like the county's cut. But Berkeley County's legal director, Anthony Delligatti, sent a 10-page letter to the state tax commissioner arguing that the law creates a separate problem entirely: West Virginia's school funding formula uses a county's "local share" of property tax to calculate how much state aid its schools receive. The higher the local share, the less state aid a county gets. Because the law contains no carve-out for High Impact Data Center property, Berkeley County's local share could get inflated by roughly $5 billion in assessed value the county never actually collects revenue from. In a follow-up letter obtained by WV MetroNews, county officials called it "the single most consequential question in fiscal terms," estimating the potential reduction in state school aid at close to $30 million a year.
Berkeley County Commission President Eddie Gochenour welcomed the project publicly at the February announcement, calling it a fantastic opportunity the county had never had before, while also acknowledging there were unanswered questions. Those two statements were not in tension. They were describing two different ledgers. One measures what the project could bring to the county in headline terms. The other measures what the same project could quietly take away through a school funding formula most homebuyers, and plenty of longtime residents, have never had reason to look at closely.
What This Means If You're Pricing a Home in Falling Waters Right Now
As of late July 2026, one widely used home value index put the typical Falling Waters home at roughly $321,000, up about 3.7 percent over the past year. A separate tracker using May 2026 sales data put the median sale price closer to $281,000, up about 1.9 percent year over year. MLS data pulled in early July showed active listings with a median list price near $404,000, averaging 71 days on market and roughly $181 per square foot. The spread between those figures isn't a contradiction. It reflects the mix of older homes closer to the Potomac against newer construction in subdivisions built around the Spring Mills school zone, which tend to list higher and move slower.
None of those numbers yet reflect anything tied to the data center, because construction hasn't started, no timeline has been released, and the tax valuation questions the county raised in April and June remain unanswered as of this summer. That's worth sitting with. Prices right now are describing a Falling Waters that hasn't absorbed this project in any direction yet, not up from anticipated tax revenue, not down from anticipated noise or water concerns. Anyone pricing a home here today is buying into that unresolved window, not into an outcome.
A few specifics are worth tracking before that changes:
- Who the end user is. Penzance has declined to name a tenant. Hyperscale operators like the ones the firm has worked with in northern Virginia typically sign leases before ground is broken, so this answer may come well before construction does.
- The water sourcing plan. Gochenour has said the county identified an opportunity to use reclaimed water rather than groundwater or river draws, which would address the volume concerns raised at the March town hall, but no final agreement has been announced.
- How the tax commissioner resolves the local share question. The West Virginia Tax Division has acknowledged it's still working through how to value High Impact Data Center property for state aid purposes. That answer, whenever it comes, will tell Berkeley County residents more about their county's fiscal footing than any press release did in February.
The Pattern Worth Watching
If you've been comparing Falling Waters to other Eastern Panhandle towns like Ranson mostly on median price, this is the variable those medians don't show. A rising tax base isn't automatically good news for the schools and services that price is supposed to be paying for, not when the formula counting that value is separate from the formula collecting the revenue. That distinction won't show up on a listing sheet. It shows up in county commission letters, tax commissioner presentations, and the kind of local reporting that tracks a story past its announcement.
None of this means Falling Waters is a bad bet or a good one. It means the answer isn't settled yet, and won't be until the tax formula question gets resolved and a tenant gets named. If you're weighing a purchase here against Martinsburg, Hedgesville, or Charles Town, that's a conversation worth having with someone who's watching the county filings, not just the listing photos.
A Few Common Questions
Will this show up on my property tax bill right now? Not yet. Construction hasn't started, and the state tax division was still working through how to assess High Impact Data Center property as of its most recent public update.
Can Berkeley County regulate the project directly? No. HB 2014 prohibits counties and municipalities from enforcing rules that would limit a certified high-impact project, which is why the county's pushback has taken the form of formal letters to state tax officials rather than local zoning action.
Is there a construction start date? None had been announced as of the most recent public statements from the state or from Penzance.
If you're weighing a move to Falling Waters, or trying to figure out how a story like this one fits into the bigger picture of buying or selling in the Eastern Panhandle, Harmony Homes with Suzanne is a good place to start that conversation. Suzanne tracks these local filings as part of the job, not as a side project, and would rather walk you through what's actually unresolved than hand you a listing sheet and hope for the best. If you want a clearer read on where your own numbers stand, a home valuation is a good next step. Let's Connect.
